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AFC completes presidential, commitee elections

Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar was unanimously confirmed as President of the Asian Football Confederation for a second four-year term at the 22nd AFC Congress held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was the only candidate running for the position. “I am immensely grateful for this vote of confidence,” Bin Hammam, who coincidentally celebrates his 58th birthday today, told AFC Media.

“My re-election demonstrates the solidarity in Asia and the confidence among AFC’s Member Associations that AFC is heading in the right direction as far as football development in our continent is concerned,” he said. “I think we have achieved a lot in the last five years since I first took office. But there is still much needed to be done and it will be my endeavour to see that Asian football is one day recognised as the best in the world. We need to set the highest benchmark possible in terms of professionalism.”

Also re-elected unopposed as AFC Vice-Presidents were Zhang Jilong (China PR), Vernon Manilal Fernando (Sri Lanka), Tengku Abdullah Ibni Sultan Ahmad Shah (Malaysia). Yousuf Yaqoob Al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates, who was elected for the first time, will be the fourth Vice-President. Chung Mong-joon of South Korea was re-elected as Vice-President of the world football body FIFA and Junji Ogura (Japan) and Dato Worawi Makudi (Thailand) retained their positions as FIFA Executive Committee members.

On the AFC Executive Committee, Richard Lai (Guam) was elected unopposed from East Asia while Zaw Zaw (Myanmar), Dali Taher Suryadharma (Indonesia) and John Koh Nam Sang (Singapore) were voted without contest from the ASEAN region. From the South and Central zone, Ganesh Thapa (Nepal), Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi (India), Bakhtier Rakhimov (Uzbekistan) and Mohsen Safai Farahani (Iran) were elected to the AFC Executive Committee unopposed while, from West Asia, Hafez Al Medlej (Saudi Arabia), Saif Hasil Rashid Al Maskery (Oman) and Hussain Saeed Mohamed (Iraq) were elected unopposed. Farouk Bouzo of Syria was re-elected as AFC Honorary Treasurer.